Ashleigh Barty is coming off a straight sets win over Alize Cornet that took 21 games to decide. In the victory, Barty won 79 percent of her first serve points and 50 percent of her second serve points. Barty won 67 percent of her total service points and saved four of her five break points. Barty has now won 12 of her last 16 matches and six of her last seven sets, making her one of the hottest players on the planet. Barty has shown flashes of this type of play, but this is easily some of the most consistent tennis we’ve seen and it’ll be interesting to see how long she can keep it up. Barty has won four straight matches on indoor hard court.

Garbine Muguruza is coming off a three sets loss to Angelique Kerber that took 26 games to decide. In the losing effort, Muguruza won 66 percent of her first serve points and 53 percent of her second serve points. Muguruza won just 59 percent of her total service points and was broken on three of her eight break points. It was a typical Muguruza match, as she played at a high level in the second set but couldn’t sustain much and lost two sets rather easily. Muguruza has now lost five of her last eight matches and continues to struggle to put together a consistent performance. Right now it’s hit or miss with Muguruza, making her one of the most frustrating players on tour to figure out. Muguruza has lost four of her last six matches on indoor hard court.

These two have split the previous two meetings, as Muguruza won the 2017 match in Toronto and Barty won the 2017 match in Birmingham. Both matches were decided in three sets.

Of course Muguruza is capable of winning this match and is worth strong consideration, but I’m not going to be the person to back her. I gave Muguruza a chance against Kerber with the flu money, and she fell apart as usual. Barty is starting to put it together and you can see the confidence build. Also, one could argue that Barty wins this match regardless of how Muguruza is playing.

Barty is the easier player to trust, so I’m backing her in this match.

Randy Chambers

12/30/2018, 4:13 AM (EST) 1/3/2019, 3:53 AM (EST)

Randy Chambers has been with Sports Chat Place since 2014 and covers everything from the NFL to WNBA and tennis. Nobody works harder in this business in terms of content produced and amount of sports covered. Formerly a lead college football writer with Bleacher Report and has had his work featured at Fox Sports, CBS Sports and various other outlets.

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